The 'Journal' 1st regional paper to print here
JAKARTA (JP): The Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) rolled its presses in Jakarta for the first time on Monday, thereby becoming the first regional newspaper to print in the city.
The AWSJ, printed by PT Gramedia, will now reach its readers in Jakarta and the surrounding areas in the morning like any other local newspaper, publisher and executive editor Urban Lehner said yesterday.
Previously Indonesia had been served from the Singapore printing plant and the paper delivered in Jakarta in the late afternoon.
"The reason for printing here is that business news is timely and needs to be presented to readers in a timely fashion. If we have the paper late in the day or the next day it losses some of its values and we want to serve readers better by giving it to them in the morning," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
But Lehner noted that by printing here, the AWSJ would not be in competition with any local papers because his paper was doing something different from what local papers were doing.
Local papers, he said, quite naturally concentrated on local news, while the AWSJ focused on the whole Asian region.
Thus, those who want to watch what is happening in Indonesia would not go to the AWSJ but to local papers. Only those who are interested in what is happening in the business community around the region would go first to the AWSJ.
"So, we are doing something which actually complements local papers," Lehner said.
He said the AWSJ was entering Indonesia with a long-term commitment and therefore "it is very important for us to be first among regional newspapers to be printed in Jakarta."
In addition to the AWSJ, the government under President B.J. Habibie has also given a green light to the International Herald Tribune to print and market here.
The decision marks the first time the government has allowed foreign media to print in Indonesia.
The domestic media industry is closed to foreign investors under Indonesian law.
The distribution of foreign publications here, excluding Japanese media, is dominated by the privately owned NV Indoprom.
The distribution of the locally printed AWSJ would still be carried out by NV Indoprom, Lehner said.
He said the AWSJ's circulation had grown by some 8 percent annually for the past six years. Current audited daily circulation in Indonesia (January to June 1998) stands at 2,879 copies.
The Jakarta print site is the ninth for the AWSJ. It is published in Hong Kong and printed there and via satellite link in Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Taipei and Manila. (rid)